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Topic: Touring Stove (Read 30653 times)

If I'm going to go to the trouble of cooking and cleaning, I want the meal to be worth it. Sure I do soups and chilis and pastas, but that's usually just with the pot. With the skillet, I'll throw together whatever I picked up that day together and cook it: fish, steak, chicken, vegetables, anything really. Sometimes it leans towards a stir fry, sometimes it's closer to a mixed grill. I'll also cook simple pies and cakes if I planned far enough in advance.

The Whisperlite is great and as its name implies relatively quiet. After it came the Simmerlite which as the name implies allows lower flame than the Whisperlite for simmering; but it is as noisy as a train in the forest. If traveling with others, a gallon of fuel can be shared, depends on the length of the trip. I used only 2 liters on 2 week trip with 2 of us, cooking 2X a day. Check out REI http://www.rei.com/category/4500028 for comparisons of lots of stoves.

To me, there's nothing more important than my morning coffee. Instant oatmeal is another ingredient in helping me through those first miles. I like to use my homemade pepsi or penny stove for this. As an added bonus, the stoves weigh less than less than nothing and are fun to make. The alcohol goes in any plastic bottle and is carried in a pannier.

Evening meals usually entail some sort of soup, pasta, rice, or whatever we can find at "the little shop that shouldn't really call itself a grocery". This can take a bit more time, so I like to use the whisperlight, or, for a more reliable and bombproop option, the MSR XGK. It is barely heavier than the whisperlight and takes up a bit more space. I carry the gas in my third water bottle cage.

I've been able to find both kinds of fuel in both the US and Canada, often in one liter containers.

"As an added bonus, the stoves weigh less than less than nothing and are fun to make."True but the fuel doesn't weigh so little. Carrying an extra Pepsi can stove can add less than half an ounce, but an extra liter of methanol weighs 1.75 pounds or so. With the weight of the container it must be about 2 pounds when full. An extra 2 pounds is a huge deal to me, especially since it only duplicates the function of the other stove.

So any perceived advantage just doesn't compute with me. It seems like you are carrying at least an extra 2 pounds to do the same thing that the other stove can do just as well or better.

One possible advantage that I could see would be if you really wanted to have two burners at the same time. Even then it looks to me as if another Whisperlite or XGK with a fuel bottle and a half liter of fuel would weigh the same as a pepsi can stove and a full liter of fuel.

The only other advantage I can come up with is that if you can't find one fuel you can maybe find the other, but the XGK is multi-fuel and has a lot of options for fuels.

Obviously, you can do as you please, but I can't conceive of any way this makes sense unless carrying an extra 2 pounds means nothing to you. Am I missing some advantage?

Some ideas for getting small amounts of fuel for a white gas/unleaded gasoline stove:

1. Stop at a gas station and approach someone who is filling their car. Ask them to add gas to your fuel bottle (bring a small funnel) and offer to pay for the 1 qt or what ever it takes. The cost should be less than $1 even at today's prices.

2. Stop at a gas station and go around to all of the pumps not in use. Remove the nozzle from the pump and drain the residual gas into your fuel bottle. Many people replace the nozzle without draining it and a few pumps may provide all you need free.

3.In any commercial or public campground, find someone with a Coleman stove or lantern and offer to buy a small amount of Coleman fuel from their large can.

BTW, denatured alcohol (ethanol treated to be non-drinkable) is available in most hardware and home center stores in the paint section, often in 1-qt or 1-pint cans. It is the solvent used for shellac.

I guess I should have clarified what you cook to include how you cook it.

I don't see how anyone can do stir fry, pies, cakes, etc. with a white gas stove or any other portable stove. I don't have room for a dutch oven, so I don't know how these got made.

As for me, if I did marinara sauce from a jar and pasta, I would be in trouble because there is not enough protein in it to sustain me.

Beans and rice from a bag are OK, but it does use a lot of fuel to cook, and I don't advise riding behind me the next day.

On my last weekend trip, my touring partner and I were each responsible for one dinner. He boiled instant brown rice, with canned chicken, and canned black beans. Very filling, although the chicken has a funky smell to it (taste is OK). I boiled canned ham with instant rice-a-roni. Actually, I attempted to saute the ham with a little olive oil before adding the water, rice, and seasoning packet. Also very tasty, no funky smell, ham has a funky texture. We both used white gas stoves.

I have a mass manufactured alcohol stove so light you can barely feel its weight when you pick it up. Through over twenety little holes it jets the flames upward one foot where they all meet at one point of concentrated heat. Place it in a low coffee can with vents for air, put the pot on top of the coffee can, and the full bottom of your pot will be covered with fire with fire venting out the air holes and climbing the sides of your pot. In a short time your food is so hot you can not even begin to eat it. If you carry HEET for fuel you can get it for $1.34 at Wal Mart and gas stations. It comes in volumes in containers much lighter than a quart of denatured alcohol.

When it comes to light weight, ease of use, cooking efficiency, and low cost, a well made alcohol stove is the best deal for the touring cyclist. At least that has been my experience so far. I have carried all kinds of stoves. The alcohol stove is the best.

I have used a Trangia alcohol stove for nearly 40 years http://www.trangia.se/english/. It has never failed me. I have pulled up on a beach in my kayak, emptied the burner of salt water, filled it with ethanol in the pouring rain and wind and had dinner cooking in less than a minute. I did replace the simmer ring this year because the rivet, after years of abuse and salt water, finally corroded through. What I like about it most is its quietness. Striking the match is the loudest noise you will hear.

I too bought the feather 442 stove. Sure, it worked just fine. However, it is nearly impossible to get fuel from a powerful gas hose at a gas station into the very small hole in the stove. In fact, I could not do it at all. You will need to find a larger gas can you can pump the fuel into, and then funnel the gas from the can into the stove. No larger gas can available? No gas. You can buy white gas, but that comes in only gallon sizes from everything I have seen thus far.